Athletes’ guide to mental training

159 Pages·02.913 MB·English

by  Nideffer, Robert M.

This book is written for those athletes
who wish to avoid choking in the big
game, losing concentration because of
negative self talk, and psyching
themselves out because of the antics of
an opponent. In Athletes’ Guide to Men­
tal Training, author Robert Nideffer ex­
plains why these psychological lapses
occur and how athletes can effectively
mentally train to strengthen their
psychological skills. Techniques for im­
proving concentration, controlling
arousal, and using imagery to practice
for success are clearly decribed.
Athletes’ Guide to Mental Training is
highly readable, exceptionally under­
standable, and ultimately practical.
Athletes in all sports, and of all skill
levels, will find this book an indispens­
able guide to mental training. Coaches
also may want to peek at this book to see
what athletes are learning about
themselves.
Dr. Robert Nideffer developed and tested the techniques described in this book over
the past four years while working with U.S. Olympic athletes preparing for the 1984
Olympic Games. Recognized as one of America’s finest sport psychologists, Dr.
Nideffer is a member of the distinguished U.S. Olympic Commitee’s Psychology
Advisory Panel. Author of five books, a popular speaker internationally, the founder
of Enhanced Performance Associates, and a former athlete and coach, Dr. Nideffer
knows sport and sport psychology. In Athletes’ Guide to Mental Training, Dr. Nidef­
fer explains the techniques he has used so successfully with many of America’s
finest athletes.
ISBN D-T31ES0-Tb-X
5 1495
780931 250965
Human Kinetics Books
$14.95
In Canada $20.95
Athletes’
Guide to
M E N T A L
T R A I N I NG
Robert M. Nideffer, PhD
President, Enhanced Performance Associates, San Diego
Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc.
Champaign, Illinois
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Nideffer, Robert M.
Athletes’ guide to mental training.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Sports—Psychological aspects. 2. Physical
education and training—Psychological aspects.
3. Attention. 4. Stress (Psychology). I. Title.
GV706.4.N49 1985 796’.01 85-4395
ISBN 0-931250-96-X
Production Director: Sara Chilton
Typesetter: Yvonne Sergent
Text Layout: Janet Davenport
Cover Design: Janet Davenport
Cover Photograph: Wilmer Zehr
Printed by: United Graphics
ISBN: 0-931250-96-X
Copyright © 1985 by Robert M. Nideffer
All rights reserved. Except for use in a review, the reproduction or utilization
of this work in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and
recording, and in any information storage and retrieval system, is forbidden
without the written permission of the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7
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Contents
Preface
Chapter 1 “The Thrill of Victory and the 1
Agony of Defeat”
Chapter 2 “Mind Like Water”—Total 5
Concentration 1
Chapter 3 “The Focus of Ki”—Total 9
Concentration 2
Chapter 4 Keys to Total Concentration 15
Chapter 5 A Time for Analyzing 25
Chapter 6 Mental Rehearsal 35
Chapter 7 Improving Your Ability to Image 43
Chapter 8 Relaxation Prior to Major 55
Competition
Chapter 9 Centering 61
Chapter 10 Testing Your Ability to Center 71
and to Focus Attention
Chapter 11 Centering and Mental Rehearsal 77
Chapter 12 Controlling Distractions and 85
Negative Thoughts
Chapter 13 Mental Rehearsal to Simulate 97
Competition
Chapter 14 Integration of Mind and Body 103
Chapter 15 A Training Model You Can 109
Follow
Appendix A When to Center and to What to 119
Direct Attention
Appendix B Attentional Requirements for 129
Different Sports
iii
Preface
The Sports Medicine Committee of the USOC voted to fund
the Elite Athlete Development Project as part of the prepara­
tion for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. This pro­
ject sought to provide current information in the sport
sciences to athletes and coaches who were likely to be in­
volved in the 1984 Olympic Games. Track and field, weight
lifting, cycling, fencing, and volleyball were the five sports that
initially participated in this pilot project. Experts in
biomechanics, sport psychology, exercise physiology, and
nutrition were identified and asked to volunteer their time to
work with coaches and athletes in these sports. It was through
this Elite Athlete Development Project that pyschologists like
myself were given the opportunity to work with U.S. Olym­
pic level athletes and coaches. I was able to work with coaches
and athletes in training camps and at various competitions
throughout the 1980-84 quadrenium.
A major logistical problem I encountered in providing
psychological services was finding a way to maintain continu­
ity and provide follow-up services. For example, when work­
ing with the men’s track and field team, I often found that
the coaches and athletes were almost entirely different from
one meet to the next. In fact, only about 20% of the athletes
who participated in the 1983 World Championships in
Helsinki made the 1984 U.S. Olympic Team! The number of
athletes to be served, the geographical distances to be covered,
and the limited resources (e.g., availability of other sport
psychologists to provide follow-up services) meant that some
V
vi Athletes’ Guide to Mental Training
type of training program and resource materials were needed.
Somehow, both coaches and athletes had to learn how to be
their own “sport psychologists.”
In response to the demands of the competitive situations
our athletes faced, I developed a structured psychological
training program which could be used by all athletes,
regardless of sport. It contains testing programs to help pro­
vide a specific training focus with individual athletes and
audio tapes to facilitate mental rehearsal and to assist in­
dividuals in controlling both concentration and arousal.
An evaluation of this sport psychology program following
the Olympic Games indicated that although the program had
been a success, sport psychologists had still much to do. We
needed to expand the education that had begun at an elite
level across all sports at all levels. We also needed to improve
the delivery system in order to put this information into the
hands of those who most needed it. In Athletes’ Guide to Men­
tal Training, I present this psychological training program
developed for our Olympic Athletes. It is one way to
disseminate this information more widely to athletes and
coaches who compete at all levels, from high school through
the professional ranks.
I begin the book by providing you with an understanding
of the critical roles that both concentration (what you pay at­
tention to) and physical arousal (how much muscle tension
you develop) play in determining your level of performance.
Several different ways to concentrate during competition are
then explained. Next you will learn that a key to successful
performance involves being able to shift from one type of con­
centration to another at precisely the right time.
You also will learn to identify the different types of concen­
tration necessary in your sport. Then, you will learn to use
special psychological techniques such as mental rehearsal,
relaxation training, centering techniques, and attention con­
trol training to help you maintain control over both concen­
tration and arousal.
For those individuals who are using psychological tech­
niques for the first time, a general training program is pro­
vided at the end of the book. This program provides a struc­
tured way for the novice to begin applying the procedures
presented.
Preface vii
Over the past few years, the methods presented in this book
have been applied in virtually every major sporting country
in the world. The procedures of mental rehearsal, centering,
and attention control training have been used in both team
sports (e.g., basketball, baseball, soccer, football, hockey, and
volleyball) and individual sports (e.g., skating, diving, swim­
ming, gymnastics, archery, shooting, judo, cycling, golf, ten­
nis, fencing, weight lifting and track and field). Sport
psychology contributed substantially to our efforts in the 1984
Olympics, and I am confident it will contribute even more in
future years as our psychological training programs become
even better.
It is with a great deal of gratitude that I thank members
of the USOC Sports Medicine Council for their support of the
Elite Athlete Development Project, especially Dr. Irving Dar-
dick, Dr. Casey Clarke, Dr. Harmon Brown, and Dr. Paul
Ward. Thanks, too, to some of the other sport psychologists
involved, specifically, Dr. Betty Wenz, Dr. Richard Suinn, Dr.
William Morgan, Dr. Bruce Ogilvie, and Dr. Rainer Martens.
I also would like to thank Basketball Canada and U.S. Diving
for their involvement. Special thanks go to Dr. Cal Botterill,
Jack Donohue, Ron O’Brien, and Dennis Golden. Lastly, and
most importantly, thanks to the athletes who supported this
work through their efforts.
1
“The Thrill
of Victory and the
Agony of Defeat”
Although it happened back in 1966, the experience was so
intense it could have been yesterday. I was warming up on
the 1 meter board prior to an intercollegiate meet. It was “just
another meet,” so I wasn’t feeling anything special. A fair­
sized crowd was watching as we were diving indoors. For my
first dive, I had decided to do a reverse layout with a half-twist.
Feeling relaxed, this was a dive I normally enjoyed. It involved
taking the normal front dive approach, and then, after lifting
off the board, reversing direction and diving headfirst in a back
dive position, back toward the diving board. At the very top
of the dive, I would add a half-twist by dropping one shoulder,
and turning my head to look back and down toward the div­
ing board, then enter the water headfirst in the same position
as if I had done an in weird dive.
My approach toward the end of the diving board was
uneventful; I wasn’t aware of anything special until my hur­
dle step. As I came back down on the board however, I could
feel the board bending beneath me. Suddenly as the board
reached the bottom of its downward bend and snapped back
up, something also snapped inside of me.
In that fraction of a second where the transition of move­
ment (from moving downward to being catapulted into the
air) occurred, I knew instantly that the dive would be perfect.
I was in total control, knowing what would happen before it
actually happened without consciously having to do anything.
It was as if my body was on automatic pilot, and the pilot was
perfect.
1
Athletes' Guide to Mental Training
2
As the board sprung back up, catapulting me into the air,
time slowed down. I seemed to sail up forever, feeling at the
very top of the dive like I was hanging effortlessly in midair,
and smiling uncontrollably in response. I knew that when I
came down, I would be very close to the diving board. I could
feel exactly where I was in the air, and even though I couldn’t
see the diving board, I knew that I would miss it, but not by
more than a couple of inches.
While I was enjoying my suspension in midair, I heard
several people in the crowd scream. I knew they thought I
was going to land on my head on the diving board. Smiling
smugly with my secret, I was the only one there who knew
that I would miss the board—I was in total control!
At the very top of the dive, I dropped my right shoulder,
twisted, and began descending toward the diving board. As
I turned in the air, with seemingly all the time in the world,
I could see and examine the faces in the crowd: Frightened,
some were staring with mouths open; some had hands in front
of their eyes, trying not to see me “kill myself’; and others
seemed to be eagerly anticipating my disaster.
As I missed the board by about 2 inches and entered the
water without a ripple, my feeling of exhilaration was com­
plete. I had just performed the best dive of my life! For a mo­
ment, time had stood still, and I knew what it was like to have
total concentration and total control.
One week later, however, the “thrill of victory” turned in­
to “the agony of defeat” in a meet at Oregon State. There I
experienced the opposite of total control. Once again, I was
diving 1 meter indoors. I remember being more anxious about
this meet for two reasons: Oregon State had a couple of good
divers, and I would be diving off a new kind of board for the
first time. I had always dived off aluminum boards, but Oregon
State had a new type of metal board that was much slower.
With the aluminum boards, the time it took for the board to
bend down and then rebound was very quick. With the board
at Oregon State, I felt like I was on a trampoline, having to
wait for the board to catapult me into the air. I was like the
pole vaulter who has used a metal pole all his life: He shows
up at a meet and finds he has to use a fiberglass pole.
Because we were diving in a dual meet, the judges selected
prior to the start of the competition a required dive which